The year is 1982. Reagan, Thatcher and
Duran Duran are ascendant. Blade Runner hits theaters
to crickets in the seats and two thumbs down from Siskel
& Ebert. But theres another, more instantly
flammable debut in the cards for that neon-streaked year:
The Hellion, a sleek, metallic war bird rendered by airbrush
kingpin Doug Johnson. Screaming For Vengeance 
that was the ear-splitting herald of 1982s New Wave
of Metal, ushered in by Birmingham, Englands own
Judas Priest.

The
bands twin guitar, outlaw biker ethos had been building
a passionate touring audience for almost a decade with
no help from commercial radio. No help, that is, until
the 1980 album British Steel beamed metal standards like
Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight
through U.S. rock radio airwaves. With Screaming, at last
there was no holding back the commercial breakthrough.
The album instantly conquered the mullet underground,
broke wide and went multi-platinum. Youve
Got Another Thing Comin became the metal generations
rebuttal to the Pod People Solution advocated by the family
values-touting B-actor who at that moment was busy giving
aid and comfort to the right wing death squads of Central
America. Teen-age paranoia was never better serviced than
in the lead track Electric Eye, marking singer
Rob Halford as one of rocks canniest lyricists.
Riding a massive new album and tour with all their underground
mystique fully intact, The Golden Age of Priest had fully
arrived.